An Open Letter to My Fellow Social Workers
Dear Fellow Social Workers (and others in the helping profession):
I’m guessing that you got into the field of helping people because you’ve been admired for your compassion, praised for your generosity, all while remaining humble. You became a nurse to connect with patients and help them through difficult times. You became a social worker to help connect individuals with untapped resources in your shared community. You became an EMT because you react well under pressure and can care for patients in crisis. You became a therapist to listen to your clients when no one else would and help them in finding ways to improve their lives.
Compassion is a gift that cannot be taught. It is a human trait. Those in the helping profession are able to share that compassion with the people they serve.
Compassion is also a quality that regularly gets taken advantage of by businesses, agencies, employers and/or supervisors in our line of work, and frankly, I’m OVER IT.
Dialing in specifically to the field of Social Work- because it’s what I know personally and professionally- we are taught and even expected to advocate for ourselves by our NASW Code of Ethics. However, we frequently let our own voice fall away when it concerns ourselves and our professional standing.
5. Social Workers' Ethical Responsibilities to the Social Work Profession
5.01 Integrity of the Profession
(b) Social workers should uphold and advance the values, ethics, knowledge, and mission of the profession. Social workers should protect, enhance, and improve the integrity of the profession through appropriate study and research, active discussion, and responsible criticism of the profession.
More than likely, you came to this field with rose-colored glasses. Maybe you thought you were going to make a difference in every client’s life by getting them connected with all of the right resources or cure them of their mental health disorders. Not one to shy away from difficult conversations, you were prepared to have some really uncomfortable experiences because it served your clients. Then, you slowly began to realize that the reality of the job is that it can be soul-sucking work and you’d be lucky if you make it six months before you find yourself calling in sick to work or sitting in your car in tears, trying to psych yourself up for another day. And oftentimes, it has very little to do with the people we serve.
While our client’s appreciate the work we do (most of the time), it’s our supervisors, agencies and leadership that ask us to continue to compromise our values, our boundaries, and our self-worth just so that they can continue to “do more with less”. Constant threats of job loss due to funding cuts, not being able to meet increased productivity goals, reductions in hours, increases in hours, ever changing on-call duties and hours, constant fluctuations in staffing numbers, changing supervisors due to budget restrictions, inability or unwillingness to retain talented staff members, constant training of new hires… you get the point by now. Staffing and retention are huge issues in our field and if not handled appropriately, a vortex for energy and morale.
These problems don’t even begin to cover the emotional endurance we are expected to maintain while working with various individuals of various backgrounds. While we got into this line of work to support people and help them navigate different barriers, nothing can truly prepare a rookie social worker to sit with a client who has just experienced the death of a loved one due to suicide, homicide, or overdose. We hold space for our clients and families to air their feelings about them being wrongfully accused of child abuse, to proclaim their innocense as they deny stealing from their grandmother, and why they felt that they had literally no other choice but to assault their girlfriend to get her to stay. When they’re deep in the throes of addiction, using just one more time before going to rehab, we pick them up off the floor and take them to their scheduled check in time. This career is more than just showing up for work every day, we show up for human kind.
We are educated professionals who are able to navigate situations in which most others would refuse to work under similar conditions. Conducting parent-child visits in client’s homes, supporting clients in the hospital after a medical emergency or trauma, making child abuse reports to DHS, working for DHS and hearing stories from children of horrific abuse, taking clients to homeless shelters, driving clients in your personal vehicle to their medical appointments, performing first aid on a client in emergency situations, performing safety checks in the middle of the night at a client’s home… all of these tasks and situations I have done and been involved in. Then when I’m asked about work from family or friends, I’m met with comments of, “I couldn’t do it,” or “how do you do it?”
Come to think of it, those are valid questions. The reality of working in the social work field is that we are frequently thrusted into new jobs, and subsequently people’s lives, with little training and little supervision because of all the factors listed above. Crises never stop, whether an agency is short staffed, there is a global pandemic, or your supervisor is too busy working a caseload to actually be able to properly train anyone. So, how did I do it? Easy: I truly loved what I was doing because of the compassion that I had for my clients.
It has never been about anything else.
But the truth is, I deserved better. We all do.
Our compassion is being manipulated by the very ones who have big, bolstered mission statements to serve the underserved and/or protect the people being taken advantage of, all while asking their own employees to do more and more and MORE.
Instead, I propose that you simply advocate for yourself as you would your clients. Have that same passion and conviction for your own salary, benefits and hours, that you would if you were trying to secure housing for a single mom and her four children. Put the same amount of energy into researching your worth as a professional as you do into finding food pantries, support groups, health insurance, and dentists that take Medicaid.
Obviously, I’m not suggesting that you all go out and become totally hostile and disagreeable employees, but rather take a look at what things you’re not willing to compromise on and set those boundaries. Hours worked, cases carried, clients served… draw those lines in the sand for yourself. And then, act on it. Compassionately and wholeheartedly, advocate for yourself. “No, I’m sorry, I really can’t pick up another case because I’m the strongest worker that you have. You’ll have to ask another one of my colleagues to pick it up instead.” “I understand that you need me to cover this appointment for this client again, but I have other things already scheduled.” With any luck, your supervisors and agencies will respect your decisions and boundaries and THEN will be able to identify a NEED for more staff, more funding, or more resources.
By advocating for yourself, you in turn are advocating for the clients that you so desperately want to help. Our clients deserve to be interacting with us when we are mentally present, well rested, and focused. They deserve our best compassionate selves each and every day.
Wholeheartedly,
Marisa
